Article: Hiccups in babies and children.

What Are Hiccups?

The medical term for hiccups is singultus and comes from Latin. It means sobbing while catching your breath. Hiccups occur due to an involuntary spasm of the muscles that help us to breath, including the diaphragm (the large muscle that divides the chest from the abdomen) and the muscles around the ribs. These spasms cause the muscles in the throat to spasm, producing the usual sound. Hiccups may occur up to sixty times a minute, though for most people the frequency is much lower. Hiccups are a common and usually benign problem that will affect everyone at some point in time.

What Can Cause Hiccups?

There are many harmless ...

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